A test of a powerful new space imager gave us a particularly detailed new perspective on the Apollo 15 lunar land.
By reflecting a powerful radar signal from the lunar surface, the new instrument was able to achieve a spectacular resolution, with objects as small as 5 meters (16.4 feet).
Designed for the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia by Raytheon Intelligence & Space, this proof-of-concept technology paves the way for even more powerful radar imaging in the future, enabling scientists to study objects even as far as Neptune.
However, radar imaging of the moon is not a new idea. It is an extremely useful tool to reveal fine structures on the surface and to investigate longer wavelengths even more than ten meters below the surface to observe variations in the density of the regolith (here on earth this technology can help us to to find buried ruins).
But the Green Bank Observatory, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Raytheon Intelligence & Space are trying to push the technology even further.
(Sophia Dagnello, NRAO / GBO / Raytheon / AUI / NSF / USGS)
In a test in November last year, the new transmitter sent a radar signal to the moon, specifically aimed at the Apollo 15 landing site – a small piece of moon, on a disk of 3,474.2 kilometers (2,158.8 miles) ) in diameter, hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.
This signal, when bounced back, was collected by the Very Long Baseline Array. It’s a collection of radio telescopes across the US, which basically creates a collection dish on the mainland.
The image below is the result. The divot in the upper center is a crater called Hadley C, about 6 kilometers across. Next to it, the Hadley Rille, presumably a collapsing lava tube, sneaks up.
(NRAO / GBO / Raytheon / NSF / AUI)
Believe it or not, but it’s not even half of it. Now that they have successfully proven the concept, the team will be working on an even more powerful transmitter: a high-power radar system of 500 kilowatts that will enable them to see even more incredible details.
This tool will be useful for all kinds of science. We could probably see our moon more closely. We could see moons from other planets. It can even be used to image asteroids and space debris that are too faint to see using optical telescopes, but to investigate radar technology.
This can help us better understand the population of objects – both natural and anthropogenic – in the near Earth, which in turn can help defend the planet against potentially dangerous objects.
“The planned system will be a leap forward in radar science, enabling access to unprecedented features of the solar system from here on earth,” said site director Karen O’Neil of the Green Bank Observatory.
And if it gets us even more incredible photos of the Moon, we are so for it.